Weight lifting has become a widely practiced activity for both men and women. In addition to being a sport in itself, weight lifting is utilized by many as a conditioning and strengthening exercise for other sports such as football, basketball, basketball, tennis, etc. Athletes who mainly rely on agility, such as tennis players, also benefit from weight lifting.
As in other sports, protective equipment is utilized to prevent injury to the participant. In weight lifting, the bar that carries the weights is roughened or knurled to prevent slippage. This can cause excessive roughening of the palms of the lifter. Many weight lifters wear gloves to protect their palms. This also provides a surer grip in case sweat develops on the palms of the lifter's hands. Gloves also minimizes development of blisters.
All the joints of the body are subjected to extreme forces during weight lifting. Many lifters use elastic wraps or Ace bandages on their joints for support. Knee and wrist wraps are sanctioned by the regulating authorities subject to restrictions as to length, width and placement of the wrap.
Wrist bands cannot exceed 10 cms in width. The wrist bands may be a wrap around style having a thumb loop on one end and a fastener, such as a Velcro patch, on the other end. However, the thumb loop cannot be over the thumb during the actual lift. The flap of material containing the thumb loop can interfere with the grip of the bar.
Wrist wraps cannot exceed 1 meter in length and 8 cm in width and cannot exceed 12 cm in width when wrapped onto the wrist. Wrist wraps are difficult to apply since the first edge slips until secured by at least one revolution of taut fabric. This requires use of the other hand to hold the wrap while also revolving the wrap--a difficult maneuver to accomplish.
Wrist bands, thumb loop wraps or regular wraps require carrying separate gloves and wraps with the possibility of losing, misplacing or forgetting one of the four pieces of equipment.